Love Songs
We saw Love Song at Steppenwolf last night. It was a wonderful, funny, and surprisingly sweet bit of magical realism which had a running time of only one hour and fifty minutes so we were home in time to watch The Daily Show. I could go on and on about the nature of the real and the unreal, whether any relationship actually takes place in the outside world or if most of it is a fantasy inside our heads, and how much this matters if the illusion makes us happy. But I would be retreading ground already covered by the play itself and, really, why don't you just go see it?
What I found somewhat amusing was a section of the program entitled Sing Along wherein the director and cast were asked to talk about their favorite love songs. I was surprised by how 60% of the responses fell in the category of opera, show tunes, or easy listening. For the most part, I was overwhelmed with a sense that I would have had a totally different response from the ones the actors listed in the program. On one hand I wanted to poke fun at some of the cheesy answers (the mere fact that the artist called himself Gilbert O'Sullivan is cheesetastic enough to cringe at the idea of ever listing one of his songs as my favorite anything) and suggest that either the person in question really has no taste or they were just giving a response which they thought might appeal to an older audience base (don't want to offend the people with lots of money by talking about the Rock & Roll.) On the other hand, I think there is something inherently uncool about certain love songs, precisely because the song is talking about vulnerability and caring about something and taking a risk and feeling happy, all very uncool topics for this post-modern, post-punk era in which we live. And one of the wonderful things about music is how it affects each and every one of us differently, so a song that which on person considers painfully romantic another will just consider painful.
So in the spirit of opening myself up to ridicule, here is a short and incomplete list of some my favorite love songs. I have decided to only concentrate on either obscure artists or on lesser known songs (because I could spend the whole day typing and linking to lyrics pages...oh, and I only created links for the artists who are somewhat obscure--you do not need me telling you who U2 is, do you?)
Roddy Frame/Aztec Camera
We Could Send Letters
Down The Dip
Crazy
The Sea Is Wide
Rainy Greys and Blues (a portion of which I sang to Jenny when I gave an impromptu speech at her and Tom's rehearsal dinner.)
Your Smile Has Stopped The Hands of Time
An April March
The Roddy Frame Experience
The Lightning Seeds
Pure
The Church
To Be In Your Eyes
U2
I Will Follow
A Sort of Homecoming
If God Will Send His Angels
David Bowie
Word on a Wing
The Cure
High
The Beatles
Tell Me What You See
Bob Dylan
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
That is all for now. I look forward to hearing what other people have to add (hint hint hint...)
What I found somewhat amusing was a section of the program entitled Sing Along wherein the director and cast were asked to talk about their favorite love songs. I was surprised by how 60% of the responses fell in the category of opera, show tunes, or easy listening. For the most part, I was overwhelmed with a sense that I would have had a totally different response from the ones the actors listed in the program. On one hand I wanted to poke fun at some of the cheesy answers (the mere fact that the artist called himself Gilbert O'Sullivan is cheesetastic enough to cringe at the idea of ever listing one of his songs as my favorite anything) and suggest that either the person in question really has no taste or they were just giving a response which they thought might appeal to an older audience base (don't want to offend the people with lots of money by talking about the Rock & Roll.) On the other hand, I think there is something inherently uncool about certain love songs, precisely because the song is talking about vulnerability and caring about something and taking a risk and feeling happy, all very uncool topics for this post-modern, post-punk era in which we live. And one of the wonderful things about music is how it affects each and every one of us differently, so a song that which on person considers painfully romantic another will just consider painful.
So in the spirit of opening myself up to ridicule, here is a short and incomplete list of some my favorite love songs. I have decided to only concentrate on either obscure artists or on lesser known songs (because I could spend the whole day typing and linking to lyrics pages...oh, and I only created links for the artists who are somewhat obscure--you do not need me telling you who U2 is, do you?)
Roddy Frame/Aztec Camera
We Could Send Letters
Down The Dip
Crazy
The Sea Is Wide
Rainy Greys and Blues (a portion of which I sang to Jenny when I gave an impromptu speech at her and Tom's rehearsal dinner.)
Your Smile Has Stopped The Hands of Time
An April March
The Roddy Frame Experience
The Lightning Seeds
Pure
The Church
To Be In Your Eyes
U2
I Will Follow
A Sort of Homecoming
If God Will Send His Angels
David Bowie
Word on a Wing
The Cure
High
The Beatles
Tell Me What You See
Bob Dylan
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
That is all for now. I look forward to hearing what other people have to add (hint hint hint...)
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